


The Girl In The Photo

by Writers_Muse



Series: Multi-Chapter Fics [9]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Adult Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir, Adult Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Aged Up, Alternate Universe - Mystery, Detective Adrien Agreste, F/M, Fiction Noir, Film Noir, Haha I punned, Missing Marinette Dupain-Cheng, Mystery, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Rating May Change, Slow Build, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-01
Updated: 2020-01-06
Packaged: 2020-10-04 23:47:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 14,037
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20479472
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Writers_Muse/pseuds/Writers_Muse
Summary: Fashion designer Marinette Dupain-Cheng is missing, a case that's becoming known as the Ladybug disappearance, and it's up to detective inspector Adrien Agreste to find out what happened to her.  But the deeper he dives into his investigation, the more he finds himself drawn to the girl in the photo.





	1. Chapter 1

On the twentieth day of June, 2027, Marinette Celestina Dupain-Cheng went missing.

It was, incidentally, also the day before her twenty-fourth birthday.

Evidence of a crime was found in her apartment, where she lived and spent much of her time when she wasn’t working as a junior designer for Miraculeux fashion house. There were signs of bleach used to clean surfaces, a few broken items, and most significantly, no one had seen or heard from the girl in nearly a week.

Her parents and close friends were distraught, and pressure was put on the Paris police department to find the woman who, before her disappearance, was quickling rising up to the position of one of the city’s darlings. She was adored by nearly everyone she met and kind to all so that suspects were few.

Her parents and friends were quickly cleared of suspicion, in addition to employees of her place of work. Neighboring tenants and other individuals she came into contact with on a regular basis were interviewed as well, but nothing concerning was discovered. At last, two weeks into her sudden vanishment, her open case file landed on the desk of one Detective Inspector Adrien Agreste.

“Here you go, boss,” his partner and (only) friend, Nino, a tall, bespectacled man with olive skin and honey colored eyes, greeted, tossing the file down on the space between them. 

All around, the sound of keyboards clacking, metal cabinets clanging shut and open, and the hum of quiet conversation droned on. The seated man looked up in surprise, blond locks falling over his forehead and forming a wispy veil just above his bright green eyes.

Agreste was a quiet, reserved individual with few friends and a single distant parent. His mother disappeared when he was only twelve, and thereafter, his fashion mogul father threw himself into his work, doing everything he could to put as much space as possible between himself and the world- including his own son. For several years, the growing boy modelled in hopes of pleasing his father, but as time went on, the two became more and more disconnected, until eventually, when he gathered the nerve to confess his desire to become a policeman, his father told him in no uncertain terms that no son of his would ever follow such a career. Seeing how irreparable their relationship had become, Adrien chose his career and sadly let go of the only family member he had left.

Over the years, he found no time for romantic relationships, though he did suffer quite a bit from loneliness, so he adopted a cat, whom he named Plagg. He first entered the police academy at eighteen, and had been working in various departments for several years until he finally gained entrance into a criminal investigations unit, which was where he had been operating for the previous six months when the case landed on his desk.

“What’s this?”

Nino grinned mischievously, pausing for dramatic effect.

“It’s the file for the missing Ladybug.”

Adrien blinked.

“What?”

Nino’s grin faltered slightly.

“The missing designer? The case has a nickname, you know, like all famous, high profile cases do. They’re calling her the Ladybug, ‘cause everyone likes her so much, and she seemed to live such a charmed life. Fashion designer job, perfect parents, humble beginnings-”

The seated blond scoffed a little and opened the file, effectively cutting off his partner’s rambling.

“She’s missing- that doesn’t sound very lucky to me. More like a black cat than a ladybug.”

His tall, dark friend smirked.

“No, bro. If anyone takes the prize for bad luck, it’s you. Some guys get called Don Juan and Casanova. Your nickname should be Chat Noir.”

Adrien didn’t even bother to look up, barely deigning to grunt in response. He was too busy flipping through the pages in the file- which weren’t many, considering the vague circumstances of her disappearance and her general lack of enemies- to pay much attention to his friend’s teasing. But when he reached the center of the file, where a photo of the Ladybug was being held securely to the thin stack, he stopped. His eyes flew to the name written in all caps at the bottom of the photograph.

“ _ Marinette _ ,” he read quietly to himself, taking in the girl in the picture.

She was quite young looking, with hair so black it was almost blue, and eyes the color of bluebells, with a slight slant and somewhat thicker lids. It was clear she was at least partly Asian, even with her cerulean-hued irises. But the most striking thing about her was her smile. It was wide, but not fake, and it made the rest of her face shine. She looked almost angelic in the photo. Finally turning the page again, he perused some of her background information. A particular piece of information caught his eye, and Adrien realized with a start that his heart had started beating faster. Hastily, he closed the file, then looked up in time to catch Nino watching him curiously.

“You ok, mec?”

The ruffled man pasted a neutral expression on his face and resisted the urge to shake his head.

“Of course. I’ll let you know when I’ve finished going through the file. Maybe we can start by going through the list of individuals close to M- the missing person. I’d like to interview them all again.”

Nino nodded, appearing thoughtful, before making a clicking sound out of the corner of his mouth- an unconscious habit- and, placing his hands in pockets, turned to go.

“Ah, Nino-”

The departing man slowed to a stop and looked at his friend expectantly.

“Who was working this case before? Why did they pass it to us?”

He seemed to think for a moment before answering, “It was, uh, Luka Couffaine, I think, but he requested to be taken off the case, claiming conflict of interest.”

Adrien’s brows flew up somewhere close to his hairline.

“Conflict of interest?”

“Yea,” Nino answered, tone thoughtful, “I think he knows the Ladybug.”

* * *

Adrien walked out of the doors of the  _ police nationale _ building in Paris several hours later and stopped near the street, black umbrella in hand and hovering overhead, and collar of his tan trench coat popped and encircling his neck. In the free hand tucked in his pocket was the picture of Marinette Dupain-Cheng.

He spent the better part of the afternoon going through the information in the girl’s file, only to come up with no real leads. All the persons listed as friends, family, or coworkers had already been checked out and found without suspicion. And while he fully planned to interview them again himself, he was piqued by the knowledge that the previous detective on the case had recused himself. Luka Couffaine was not on the list of possible suspects, but had been unofficially questioned and found to have an alibi for the broad window of time Marinette was estimated to have gone missing- sometime between the late afternoon/early evening of the twentieth, and the morning of the twenty-first. Couffaine had been working a case during those hours, and would have been accompanied by his partner during most of them. The two knocked off somewhere around four in the morning, at which time Luka reportedly went home to his live-in girlfriend, who vouched for his presence.

By all appearances, Luka was almost on the other side of the city when Marinette likely disappeared, but something about the situation just felt wrong. Adrien couldn’t shake the feeling that there was something missing, something just not adding up. If Luka had nothing to hide, then why would he excuse himself from the case? Even if he knew her, to declare bias or conflict of interest suggested a deep emotional involvement, which couldn’t be explained by mere acquaintanceship.

A black car pulled up to the curb, and a large, burly man in uniform disembarked from the driver’s side door, then crossed to the sidewalk, irreverent of the rain falling all around him. He held the keys out to Adrien, who accepted them with a single nod.

“Thanks, Gorilla,” he said to the silent giant, who nodded curtly in return and saluted before heading inside.

Adrien walked around to the driver’s door, umbrella still sheltering him from overhead, and climbed into the vehicle. Stuffing the soggy, folded up contraption onto the passenger’s floor mat, he connected his phone to the USB port and pulled away from the curb.

Car lights blurred as drops of water inundated his windows. As Adrien drove carefully down the road, his phone started ringing. A look at the screen in the center of his dash told him it was Nino calling. With the tap of a button, he answered.

“Agreste here.”

“Hey, boss,” Nino’s voice came out through the car’s speakers. “I asked around, and I found out Luka Couffaine is- get this- Ladybug’s old boyfriend.”

Adrien’s fists clenched on the steering wheel. He slowed the car as he approached a turn before signalling and cautiously rotating the wheel.

“Understood.”

“Shouldn’t we, uh, shouldn’t we include him on our list then? I mean, I know he’s got an alibi, and he was already questioned unofficially, but that’s one hell of a coincidence, don’t you think? It’s fine that cops look out for each other, but for something like this-”

“Noted. I’ll take your concern under advisement. Let me know if you discover anything else.”

There was a quiet pause.

“All right, man. Just let me know if you need anything.”

“Will do.”

Adrien pressed the button to end the call and drove in relative silence for several more minutes, after which, the car began to slow. The man pulled over in front of a familiar building, then drew a deep breath and shifted the gear into neutral, setting the brake. As he opened the car door and emerged from the vehicle, a black swath of nylon spread out like a raven’s wings, providing a protective canopy for him in his trek up the walk.

At the end of the path, Adrien stopped. A large, iron gate loomed in front of him, sending a myriad of old, negative emotions swirling through him. Pushing through the tumult, he reached up with a shaking finger and pressed the call button that was projecting out of a column of stone. It buzzed unpleasantly. Then a round camera emerged from an opening in the security box and seemed to peer at him invasively.

“Yes?” came a familiar, stoic voice.

“Nathalie, I need to speak to fa- Monsieur Agreste.”

There was a brief pause.

“What about?”

Adrien shifted from one foot to the other, jaw ticking with tension.

“It’s about official business relating to one of his designers.”

The camera retracted, covered once again by the tiny metals doors that housed it. A few anxious moments of silence followed before the gate began to swing inwardly.

Adrien walked past the gate and onto the driveway, listening with a shudder as they closed behind him with a clang. It was the sound of his childhood nightmares- the closing of the doors to a prison cell. Still, he kept walking, telling himself that he was free and no longer had anything to fear. But his pounding heart and the roar in his ears persisted.

Two large wooden doors at the front of the mansion parted almost without a sound. The woman standing at the center of them- a thin, impassive woman of average height, wearing rectangular glasses and a perfectly tailored, wrinkle-free suit- watched him approach, her expression giving nothing away. He took the last few steps up to the landing of the entryway, then stopped.

“Pleasure to see you again, Adrien,” she offered, but her tone and face showed no sign of whether or not the statement was true. Adrien shifted a bit uncomfortably, still unable to read the woman who virtually raised him after his mother’s disappearance. He had seen more of her in the six years she looked after him than his own father.

“Nathalie,” he returned, not sure what to say. Then, “You... haven’t changed at all.”

Well, at least it was something.

Her eyes barely closed in acceptance of this awkward compliment, but she said nothing. In one fluid movement, she bowed slightly, then spun to face the hall.

“Follow me.”

It was a simple order, if an odd one. Though Adrien knew every inch of that empty, cavernous mansion and could probably navigate it in the dark, he was being led through it as a stranger- an outsider. Still, he knew that Nathalie would never do anything short of her job, and at the moment, her job was to first notify his father of his presence and then “show” Adrien into the older man’s office. 

Serpentine twists and turns brought them to two tall, heavy wooden doors. A nervous jolt of electricity shot through Adrien’s hand and out through his fingertips, causing him to splay them out at his side while Nathalie contacted her employer through the phone on her desktop.

She was quiet and discreet, as always, and Adrien was never one to eavesdrop, but he couldn’t miss the way she seemed to argue against whatever his father was saying- probably an instruction to force Adrien to come back after making an appointment. The perpetually stoic woman had certainly grown over the years, starting out as a young, efficient automaton who obeyed all orders without question, and gradually evolved into an equally strong, but much more assertive woman. 

In the time he spent being supervised and chaperoned by her everywhere he went, he managed to, on more than one occasion, witness her fight back (with complete emotional control and infallible logic, of course) against Gabriel’s rather autocratic mandates. She even fought with the man to induce him to allow Adrien to attend public school, but it was only a year after his mother disappeared, and she was in the end unable to convince the hyper-paranoid hermit. It was enough to grow Adrien’s appreciation for her, a sentiment which was burgeoning in his chest as she replaced the handset in the holder and reached for the office door’s handle.

The thick levers clacked and lowered under her touch, and the last barrier separating him from the father he hadn’t talked to in years arced inward. Nathalie preceded Adrien through the doorway, momentarily blocking the elder Agreste from his view.

“Monsieur Agreste, Adrien is here to see you,” she announced rather unnecessarily, though he understood her observation of formality. Adrien was essentially disowned, and therefore, “unrecognized,” even by his own father.

As soon as she said the words, she stood to the side and held the door wide for Adrien to proceed further into the room. All at once, an aging, familiar yet also strange man appeared before him. He looked so small in his seat, and even as he stood and bowed before the younger blonde, his own platinum blonde-turned-silver staying perfectly in place, Adrien began to wonder what had happened to the person in front of him. Green eyes met grey, and Nathalie quickly bowed, then ducked out without a sound, closing the heavy door behind her.

Adrien took the brief silence to visually size up his estranged father. He was older, obviously, which showed in the color of his hair, the appearance of some minute wrinkles around his eyes and the corners of his mouth, and the way he seemed to stand somehow less tall. When he was younger, Adrien always thought his father was a giant- a god. Even after his mother disappeared, and Adrien began to grow at a rapid rate, he always looked up to the man who helped create him, both physically and personally. But by the time he left the mansion forever, they were practically the same height. Now, it seemed, Adrien had grown several more centimeters, giving him a noticeable height advantage.

Looking down at his father, in more ways than one, Adrien felt something twist in his chest. It was the first time he had come back to this house since he was essentially kicked out, though he did make the choice to leave. There was a part of him that still foolishly wished things could have been different, many things, but he also understood that those wishes were phantoms, and chasing them, obsessing over them, would only bring him madness and misery.

In the middle of his reverie, Adrien realized his father was also looking back at him, but he did not shrink away. The older man cleared his throat, dropping his eyes to the desk before resuming his seat.

“I understood this is a rather urgent issue of a time-sensitive circumstance. Please, do begin. I have many important matters to return to.”

It didn’t escape the junior Agreste’s attention that he was not offered a seat, but he brushed that thought to the side. He would rather remain standing anyway.

“Well, then I won’t waste any more of your time than necessary,” Adrien began. It gave him a bit of satisfaction to see the way his father’s brow twitched slightly. “I’m here to ask you about an employee of yours- a Miss Dupain-Cheng.” Gabriel’s eyes flashed quickly, but the moment was gone even before Adrien could register it. Immediately after, his father returned to his normal unreadable expression and looked down at the papers in front of him.

“What about her? I didn’t know her personally. If there is information you want about an employee of my company, then it would be more efficient of you to ask Nathalie. I do not maintain those sorts of records.”

Gabriel went back to his work as though their encounter was over, but Adrien was not put off. He narrowed his eyes, then rather obstinately moved in front of one of the empty chairs, taking a seat. His father looked up in surprise.

“Is there anything else? I am a busy man.”

Irritation dripped from his voice. Adrien leaned forward, elbows on his knees, a posture the older man would never have let him assume when he was growing up. One of Gabriel’s eyes seemed to twitch, but he made no other comment.

“I’m not here to ask you about factual information- at least, not the kind that can be found in an employee file. You see, the thing is, you just told me you don’t know her personally.”

There was a moment of quiet before Gabriel responded.

“That is correct. I am not personally familiar with Marinette Dupain-Cheng.”

Adrien watched his father for a minute without saying anything, narrowing his eyes once again in assessment.

“Marinette you said? I don’t remember mentioning her first name. Tell me, if you were not familiar with her, then how are you able to recall her so easily?”

Tense seconds passed, but still the other man said nothing.

“You know,” Adrien went on after a while, unable to keep a sly smirk off his face, “even if you didn’t say that, I would have known you were lying. As it happens, I’ve gone through all the statements and interviews that have already been conducted, and not only does every single one of her colleagues praise her as a talented designer and an incredibly kind, likeable person, but they also have described her as, how did they term it? Ah, yes. ‘Monsieur Agreste’s favorite.’” Then his smile was gone. “You know,  _ Monsieur Agreste _ , everyone can’t help gushing about how much you doted on Miss Dupain-Cheng, by all accounts, your own hand chosen protege. As it is, you have the least reliable alibi out of everyone in this entire building, considering you live alone. Perhaps if you wish to avoid suspicion, you should start with not hiding the nature of your relationship to the missing person.” Adrien stood as he spoke these last words, meeting his father’s gaze for several seconds before turning toward the door. The handle gave under his hand, and he pulled it toward himself. Just before he stepped through, however, he turned back and looked at the man who should have been his closest family, but now was just a stranger. “I’m in charge of this investigation now, and I’m starting from the ground up. Come Monday, I plan to re-interview everyone who ever sets foot into this building, and I’m starting with you.”

Then he walked through the door and closed it behind him, waving to Nathalie as she began to rise out of her chair.

“Don’t worry about it. I can find my own way out.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Adrien and Nino begin their investigation.

“Yo, boss.”

Adrien’s blond head rose up in time to catch his partner approach his desk and set a cup of what was most likely coffee down in front of him. He nodded in thanks, then lifted it to his lips for a cautious sip.

“What’s on the agenda today?” Nino asked.

Setting the cup down carefully, the seated man motioned to a chair, which Nino took.

“I’ve arranged for new interviews with the missing person’s colleagues and anyone she interacted with for work purposes, starting with her office.” Adrien grabbed a small collection of papers from the open file in front of him and slid it across the desktop. His bespectacled partner scooted closer and leaned in to inspect the long list it contained. “I need you to cross examine all of the interviews that have already been done with these people and note any irregularities, inconsistencies, or neglected lines of questioning. Understood?”

Nino lifted the top page and whistled lowly, his eyebrows raised high.

“The first name on this list-”

“I’m well aware of that,” Adrien interrupted, leaning forward on his forearms and intertwining his fingers. “Gabriel Agreste has been identified as the missing woman’s superior and most likely has frequent contact with her, both during and outside of working hours. And I have reason to find his relationship with her at the very least of interest. He has already attempted to contraindicate the depth of their familiarity.”

Nino watched him with wide eyes, but said nothing, then went back to reading the list.

“All right, boss. You got it.” 

Pages in hand, he rose up from his chair and caught the small USB tossed his way.

“All interview transcriptions should be on this drive. Let me know if you discover any missing information.”

The standing man saluted casually and turned to go, but stopped. Adrien looked up expectantly.

“Is there anything else, Lahiffe?”

“Lahiffe” sighed.

“Boss, I’ve already told you a dozen times, just call me by my first name.”

“I apologize, Giovanni.”

The multi-nominal man closed his eyes resignation.

“Not that one.”

“Lahiffe it is, then.”

Nino shook his head and exhaled wearily. Adrien’s mouth quirked in veiled amusement.

“Do you want me to go with you?”

Confused, he blinked at the question.

“Wouldn’t that make it difficult for you to complete the task I already assigned to you?”

The look his partner gave him was long-suffering.

“I meant, you know, if you didn’t want to have to question your dad on your own-”

“Legally, he isn’t my father anymore,” Adrien interjected, looking back down at the papers in front of him and resuming the notes he was making before Nino had interrupted him. “You don’t have to worry about it. I’ll be fine.”

Nino stood there for a few seconds longer, but Adrien kept recording his notes.

“All right, boss. I’ll let you know what I find.”

The blond man nodded in acknowledgement, bu said nothing more as his partner went to his station.

* * *

“Can you state your name please, for the record?”

Gabriel Agreste directed a resentful glare at his disowned son and grunted.

“Is this really necessary?” he asked, voice tight with agitation.

Adrien looked up from his notepad and pen, expression unreadable, and stared back.

“The questioning? Why, I would say discovering what happened to her and where she is now should be top priority, wouldn’t you?”

The older man’s jaw ticked with impatience and frustration.

“I meant the recorder.”

He pointed at the small, offending object which was resting on the desk top between them.

“Well, it’s not necessary,” Adrien responded in a falsely cheerful tone, “but I find them rather helpful when I’m cross-referencing statements. Does it bother you?”

His bright green eyes bored into Gabriel’s grey ones, seemingly civil and pleasant, but with a challenge evident underneath the facade. For a few seconds, neither looked away until at last, the older of the two flicked his gaze in another direction. 

“It’s fine,” he said, though clearly, it was not.

The corner of Adrien’s mouth quirked in smug satisfaction. He clicked the pen in his hand and smiled widely.

“Great. Let’s get started.”

* * *

Nino navigated through the files on the disk Adrien had given him. He had to give it to the person who uploaded them- they were organized. There was a separate folder for each person. Every file name had the interviewee’s full name, plus the date they were seen. In addition to the video or audio file of each interview, was a file with typed notes about the interview.

Starting with the top of the list, Nino went through and double checked to see if there were files for each and every name he had in his possession. Eventually satisfied every individual was accounted for in the files, he began combing through and checking for duplicates or interviews for persons not listed on the paper. As he was going through the disk drive, one name caught his attention.

Nino’s brow furrowed as he read it aloud.

“Luka Couffaine?”

* * *

“State your full name, please.”

“Gabriel Alexandre Agreste.”

“Thank you, Monsieur Agreste-” Gabriel rolled his eyes. “-now please describe how you know Miss Dupain-Cheng.”

The fashion magnate sighed heavily and pinched the arch of his nose between his eyes.

“Miss Dupain-Cheng is an employee of mine.”

“What is her position?”

“She is head of design for Miraculeux, one of the houses under Agreste fashion brand.”

“Can you please describe her as an employee- roles, reputation, reliability, character.”

Gabriel sat back, intertwining his fingers together on his lap and paused a beat.

“Miss Dupain-Cheng is responsible for overseeing the designs created by her subordinates as well as the ordering, acceptance, and distribution of materials for all our clothing lines. She also organizes and oversees fashion shows, coordinates cooperation between Miraculeux and other subsidiaries of Agreste brand, and hires and trains all new designers. So far, her work has been impeccable.”

Adrien took a few notes, then looked up again.

“It seems like she does more work than anyone else, not to mention the number of people she must supervise. Is there anyone she has had a problem with, someone she might have reprimanded or embarrassed, maybe someone she fired for poor performance or otherwise?”

“No,” Gabriel responded tersely. “She treats everyone she meets with respect so that there isn’t a single person with whom she has come into contact who dislikes her. No one has anything but admiration for Miss Dupain-Cheng.”

Adrien’s eyes narrowed at the fervency of his father’s voice. It was clear the man was trying to hide it, but the extent of his esteem for his missing employee was glaringly obvious. He set his pen and pad down on the desk, then leaned forward, elbows resting on his knees, hands clasped together between them. Gabriel’s eyes flickered searchingly between his own.

“Is there anyone who might have had a regard for her that was… more than professional? Did she perhaps reject anyone’s advances at any point?”

The older man’s jaw ticked.

“Not that I am aware of.”

Green eyes narrowed, and Adrien subconsciously clicked his tongue.

“Can you tell me why, Monsieur Agreste, when I asked you initially about your familiarity with Miss Dupain-Cheng, you insinuated you had no regular interaction with her?”

Gabriel leveled his grey eyes at the man interrogating him. His jaw tensed, and under the cover of his desk, he clenched his fists.

“I am not… a man with time to spare. It was my hope this investigation could be handled efficiently with the cooperation of my assistant.” He paused. “I must confess, I believe I placed too much confidence in the capability of the préfecture de police de Paris.”

Adrien smothered a sneer and sat back in his chair again. There were a few seconds of quiet as the two of them observed each other. Finally, the younger Agreste spoke up.

“And can you tell me, for the record, where you were the evening of the twentieth to the twenty-first of June?”

Gabriel stared at him silently for a moment.

“I was working at the office, after which I returned home where I stayed for the rest of the evening and night.”

“Can anyone attest to that fact?”

“No.”

Adrien rose up from his seat, resisting the urge to smirk smugly. Reaching down he collected his pen, notepad, and recorder, switching it off.

“I appreciate your time, _ Monsieur Agreste. _ As always, it’s been an _ absolute pleasure. _” Then he turned, pocketed his belongings, and headed toward the office door. “If there are no issues, you won’t likely need to see me again. I’m sure we’ll be in touch soon.”

Then he opened the large, black and gold door, and walked out, the echo of its clang reverberating all around when it closed behind him.

* * *

“You know this isn’t necessary, Couffaine.”

Nino stared at the computer monitor and the man in the middle of its frame. Luka Couffaine, twenty-six years old, had medium length black hair pulled back into a low ponytail. Little rivulets of hair that were too short to stay in the tie curled around his face, revealing the remnants of dyed-blue tips. Parts of a tattoo were visible around the neckline of his long-sleeve olive green Henley, which was open a few buttons, and there appeared to be a pair of black gauges in his ear lobes. The sleeves were rolled up to just below his elbows, exposing his toned forearms, which were likewise covered in tattoos. He seemed to be sitting on a small chair, with both of his feet resting on a plank stretching between the lower part of the two front chair legs, his knees bent and spread, his arms straight with both hands grasping the bit of seat exposed between his thighs.

“Yea, yea I know, man, but it’s just… something I gotta do.”

The person he was speaking to remained out of frame, ostensibly behind the camera that was recording.

“All right, then,” the disembodied voice said on a sigh. “Might as well start with your name, since you’re insisting on this.”

Luka looked straight at the camera then, and cleared his throat.

“Right. I’m Luka Couffaine, detective of the préfecture de police de Paris. I’m currently investigating the-” his voice seemed to strain for a second, so he stopped and cleared it. “I’m currently investigating the disappearance of one… Marinette Dupain-Cheng.” He paused again and looked down, apparently attempting to compose himself. After a minute, he resumed looking into the camera. “On the evening of the twentieth, I was on duty, which my partner can confirm-” he nodded toward the camera, assumably in the direction of his partner “-and after I went home around four in the morning, I spent the rest of the night and early morning in my apartment, which can also be confirmed by girlfriend, who lives with me.” There was a moment of hesitation as he inhaled deeply and then released his breath. “I am declaring this because of my own personal history with Marinette. In the past, I was in a relationship with her for four years before we parted ways. The split was amicable, and we remain friends. I still see and hear from her from time to time. I- I happened to hear from her on the day before her disappearance, as well, when she called to find out if I was planning to attend her birthday celebration the day after, which… never happened.” He swallowed. “It is for this reason that I have decided… to recuse myself from the case.”

“_What?!_” his partner interjected from off screen. Luka kept on talking.

“-Because I find that I am struggling to approach the investigation impartially, and my… emotional history with Marinette will likely impair my judgment.” It was becoming clear that the man was beginning to struggle to remain composed as he sniffed and clenched the chair more tightly in his fingers. His eyes fell to the floor, no longer able to look directly at the camera, or possibly the person behind it. One hand came up to pinch the bridge of his nose as his eyes scrunched tightly shut. “I can’t- I’m- That’s it. I’m done. No more.”

The camera cut out immediately after that, and Nino sat back in his seat, jaw hanging open in a dumbfounded expression.

* * *

Adrien made his way back to the préfecture headquarters several hours later, exhausted after his first round of interviewing Marinette’s coworkers. All around, no one had a bad thing to say about her, and several employees, both male and female, even described her in ways that bordered on adoration. They all seemed harmless, and the only one that gave him a bit of an uncomfortable vibe was a man with a slicked-back ponytail and a goatee- Theo Barbeau.

The man was all smooth lines and perfect composure, gushing about what a beautiful, admirable person Marinette Dupain-Cheng is. He seemed to have no criminal history, however, and there were no complaints of harassment or any concerning behavior in the company records. Subtle questioning around the building led him to believe that though Barbeau tended to make advances on Marinette, she always rebuffed him gracefully, and the two did not seem to have any tension between them. By all appearances, she was not uncomfortable around him, and he was not overtly inappropriate with her.

Adrien sighed and drew a hand down his face as he pulled open the doors to the lobby. He passed by the front check-in and waved briefly at the Gorilla, who was sitting behind the desk. The mute giant simply nodded and grunted in return.

He had barely made it into his seat when his door, which hadn’t had time to fully shut, opened wide. Looking up, he watched as Nino strode in and took a chair.

“Hey, boss,” he greeted, leaning forward with elbows on his knees. “How’d it go?”

Adrien’s mouth ticked in consideration, and he tossed his notepad, pen, and recorder lightly down on the desk.

“I got through the majority of the people M- the missing person interacts with most regularly, and I can send in a few officers to interview the rest with a list of questions. What have you got for me?”

Nino inched forward in his chair, practically twitching with anxious energy.

“I went through as many interviews as I could, some of them were video recorded and some just audio, and I made some notes about some areas that could be probed deeper, but-”

“Did you happen to get to the interview for Theo Barbeau yet?” Adrien interrupted suddenly.

Nino stopped, surprised.

“Uh, yea, as a matter of fact, I did. Barbeau. I remember him. He was pretty high up on the list because of his last name. Guy was kind of sketchy.”

“Mm,” Adrien hummed noncommittally. “Video or audio recording?”

“Audio.”

“What was your overall impression of him?”

The corner of Nino’s mouth quirked as he thought about how to respond.

“He seems… skeezy?”

The blond blinked, confused.

“What?”

His bespectacled partner stared at him for a minute.

“Man, bro, you have got to get out more often,” he finally answered, shaking his head. “It’s like, someone who’s kinda shifty, kinda gives you the creeps. He just… it seemed like he managed to make every answer somehow about how pretty or nice Marinette is, but in a way that made me want to hide my sisters and future daughters in a place he will never find them.”

Adrien couldn’t help but laugh a little at that.

“I had a similar impression,” he agreed. “But it isn’t enough to make him suspicious, at least not yet.”

“Oh, but get this, boss,” Nino suddenly blurted, almost before his partner had finished his sentence. Then he held up the disk drive in his hand, some variant of earnestness evident on his face. “There’s something you should see.”

* * *

The video came to an end, and Adrien sat back in his chair, frowning. All was quiet for several seconds.

“So… what do you think?” Nino asked once it was fairly clear Adrien wouldn’t be the first to speak.

The blond man stared into space for a bit, almost unseeing, so deep in thought was he.

Then, finally: “I have some questions, but I’m not entirely sure they can be answered without speaking to detective Couffaine.”

Nino nodded, eyes comically round, from his place hovering around Adrien’s shoulder.

“I know, right?” he asked enthusiastically as he stood up straight. “I mean, why would he need to record this? On the one hand, it could say a lot about his integrity as a detective, but on the other, it’s pretty curious that his own partner not only didn’t prompt him with any of the typical questions we would ask, but didn’t realize that Couffaine was about to drop out of the case. At face value, yea, I can see why he would be upset and want to excuse himself, but also, I feel like, if someone _ I _ loved was missing, I would move heaven and earth rather than let someone else take over the search for them. Like, why does he want to stay away from it so bad?”

Adrien nodded, absorbing his partner’s thoughts on the matter and reconciling them with his own. He, too, wondered why Luka Couffaine would suddenly give up the case, even for an old flame. Then, some of the words Nino said processed, and Adrien turned his head quickly to look at the standing man.

“He’s still in love with her,” he said, almost like a thought out loud.

“Yea,” Nino replied as though it was the most obvious thing. “I gathered that.”

“Love makes people do crazy things.”

The man looking down at him arched an eyebrow.

“What are you saying?”

Adrien’s eyebrows raised in return.

“I think we should have a talk with detective Couffaine.”

“Boss.” A voice coming from the doorway attracted both their attention, and they turned simultaneously to look at the owner of the voice.

“Monsieur Raincomprix,” Adrien greeted with a nod. “What can I do for you?”

The large, red-haired man crossed under the frame and lightly tossed a file down on Adrien’s desk.

“The files you asked for.”

“Thank you,” Adrien said, pulling the folder closer to himself and opening it to sift through the pages.

“Is there anything else, sir?”

“No, that’ll do.”

Officer Raincomprix nodded and excused himself, leaving the two men alone once again.

“Boss?” Nino asked.

“Detailed records of everyone who went in and out of this building on the night of the girl’s disappearance, down to the minute, plus the logs and reports of everyone who was out of the building while on duty,” Adrien explained, though he did not look up.

His partner nodded and quietly walked around to the other side of the desk, pulling a chair closer and waiting patiently.

“Anything specific you’re looking for?”

The man behind the desk didn’t answer for long moments, turning page after page before finally coming to a stop. He lifted a paper in one hand until it was directly in front of his face, then looked up at Nino, who was watching expectantly.

“Find something?”

“Yea,” Adrien answered, and held the paper out toward Nino. He reached out and took it, eyes falling immediately to its contents.

“What am I looking at, boss?”

The blond leaned forward and rested his forearms on the desk, fingers intertwined.

“A record of the minutes for Luka Couffaine.”

The other man’s eyes found what they were looking for, and he flicked them up to look at his partner. Adrien grinned, a fire in his eyes.

“Luka Couffaine was separated from his partner for sixty eight minutes in the early morning hours of the twenty-first, from 01:03 to 02:11, which blows his alibi out of the water.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This story is going to be a slow burn, and I have both high hopes and serious plans for it, so I hope that you stick with me for the ride!
> 
> Thanks for reading ^_^ Please let me know what you think in a comment and leave kudos if you're enjoying the story so far
> 
> <3 Muse


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Adrien questions Luka, then visits Sabine while Nino meets with Alya. A phone call in the middle of the night might change everything.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Most of this chapter is a flashback (in italics). Adrien starts the chapter going to sleep, then the scenes are mostly his remembering the day until it gets to the end and the phone call, which wakes him up.
> 
> Please enjoy!

Adrien tossed his effects onto the nightstand by his bed. A watch, his wallet, pair of glasses, and some keys. The way they echo in the stillness of the apartment felt so much louder than ever before.

Tired. He was tired. The long day of one event after another drained him of all the energy in his body, yet as he lay there on the bed, too tired to even properly change but simply shedding his slacks and button up shirt before climbing in, his restless mind kept moving over the details of the day. He found himself suspended somewhere between sleep and reality as he compulsively went over the day over and over again in his head. It was with these thoughts passing through on repeat that he fell into a fitful sleep.

* * *

_ It was raining- of course it was raining. It seemed like lately, it always was. _

_ Adrien ducked into the front doors of the police building and removed his hat, shaking it and dispelling the water drops clinging to it. He gave the Gorilla an acknowledging wave before proceeding to his office. After crossing through the doorway, he took off his trench coat and hung it on the rack in the corner of the room. Within thirty seconds, Nino was entering into the office behind him. _

_ “Hey, boss. You ready?” _

_ The tall blond man nodded once in confirmation. _

_ “Great. He’s waiting in interview room 3.” _

_ The two men made their way down the hall, pale blond leading olive-skinned brunette. Upon reaching the door to room 3, Adrien paused briefly, exchanging silent glances with his partner, before turning the nob and entering the room. _

_ “Monsieur Couffaine, it’s a pleasure to meet you. I’m Adrien Agreste. This is my partner, Giovanni Lahiffe.” _

_ Adrien sat first, Nino taking the seat next to him. The man across from them watched them, reserved but not exactly guarded. His hair looked neater than it had in the video file Nino found. It was collected back carefully halfway down his head, in line with his ears. The rest of it draped, brushed into smooth, blue-tipped black tresses, to his collarbones. His olive Henley from before was now a crisp white button-front shirt, his jeans a pair of black slacks. Now with a closer look, Adrien could see that there was a piercing in his eyebrow, in addition to the ones in his ears. On his finger were several rings, all in silver or black. Hiding under the cuff of one sleeve was a metal bracelet. It looked to be an ouroboros. _

_ Luka nodded in greeting. _

_ “Nice meeting you, Monsieur Agreste, Monsieur Lahiffe. Can I ask what you need from me?” _

_ Adrien exhaled a bit heavily, allowing the file he was carrying to fall onto the desk with a slap. _

_ “We’re just here to ask you a few questions about your acquaintance with Miss Dupain-Cheng.” _

_ The dark-haired man nodded again, though he didn’t seem to be fully sure what they wanted. _

_ “Well… I’ll do anything I can to help, but I don’t think that’s much. I don’t know anything really about Marinette’s disappearance. I… am not in a lot of contact with her these days. I mean- you know, even before she disappeared, we didn’t speak often.” _

_ “So, is it accurate to say then that you didn’t have any contact with her the day she disappeared?” _

_ Luka’s hands were resting on the top of the table, loosely fisted. It was brief, almost dismissible as a twitch, but for a fraction of a second, one of his hands clenched tighter. _

_ “Ah, n- nope. No. I… did not see Marinette at all that day. I would have seen her the next day but-” _

_ “I’m sorry, Monsieur Couffaine-” _

_ “Please, call me Luka.” _

_ “Right. Luka. As I was saying, I apologize, but for the sake of efficiency, we must be completely thorough and transparent. You said you didn’t _ see _ her on that day, but I would like to know if you had _ any _ contact with her, whatsoever in the hours leading up to her disappearance.” _

_ Luka looked nervously between the two men, seeming to weigh his response. _

_ “N- no. No. I didn’t have… any contact with Marinette on the day she disappeared.” _

_ Adrien sat there for a moment, visibly considering the statement. At last, he seemed to make a decision and turned the file on the table, opening it. _

_ “Monsieur Couffaine-” _

_ “Luka.” _

_ “-can you tell me what this is?” _

_ Luka looked down at the paper for a second, swallowing. _

_ “That’s, uh, that’s a log of my minutes on duty the night of the twentieth.” _

_ Adrien’s green eyes pierced into him, but Luka kept his focused on the page in front of him. _

_ “Monsieur Couffaine-” _

_ Luka sighed, exasperated. “Luka.” _

_ “-can you tell me why, between 01:03 and 02:11 your whereabouts are different from your partners?” _

_ The man being questioned kept staring at the papers, but didn’t say anything. Adrien continued. _

_ “Is there a reason, Monsieur Couffaine, why your partner has these minutes recorded as ‘reviewing testimony’ for a case you were working on, yet your own are simply labeled as ‘stepped out on an errand’?” _

_ More silence followed. _

_ “Do you need to rethink what you just told us, Monsieur Couffaine?” _

_ The man sat there for a moment, visibly losing composure as his eyes began to fill with tears and his hands started to tremble. _

_ “I- I never saw her,” he eventually mumbled. His eyes fell closed then, and he dropped his head to his hands. “I don’t know what happened to her. What if it’s my fault? She was supposed to be there, but she never showed-” _

_ Nino was rapidly taking notes, and Adrien leaned closer. _

_ “Where, Luka? Where was Marinette supposed to be? What sort of meeting did you arrange with her?” _

_ Luka sat back then, his hand falling listlessly to his lap, his head tilting slightly back as he looked up toward the ceiling. _

_ “I- we keep in touch, sometimes. It’s… more me than her. My girlfriend gets jealous, so I keep a cheap burner phone. I just wonder how she’s doing sometimes, or what she’s doing. Sometimes she makes time to meet on her lunch break or-” He shook his head. “That night she sent me a message. It was late. She _ never _ does that. She asked me to be at the ponts de arts bridge at 01:20 but didn’t say why. It’s not that far from the station. I arrived a few minutes early. I was nervous and excited, a little confused. She never showed. I just… figured she fell asleep or something. I tried calling her a couple of times, but she didn’t answer. Then the next day, her family was having trouble finding her before her planned birthday celebration. I never imagined...” _

_ He trailed off there, voice rough and eyes wet. Adrien watched him, measuredly, before taking some more notes down. _

_ “Do you have this phone with you right now?” _

_ Luka reached somewhat reluctantly into his pocket, pulling out an old model flip phone. Nino accepted it and pulled it open. _

_ “There’s no passcode,” he commented. The buttons clicked a little as he navigated through its contents. “There’s only one phone number, saved under Petite Ange. The text message inbox only has messages from Petite Ange.” _

_ Adrien nodded and watched as Nino took a plastic zippered bag from his coat pocket, placing the phone inside. _

_ “We’re going to need to go through the phone,” the blond man said, facing Luka was again, “and confirm any numbers that have been contacted with this phone, along with any possible photos, files, or links that may be on the device. Is there anything you would like to tell us now, perhaps something we may find while looking through the phone?” _

_ The dark-haired man looked up, frowning. _

_ “Like what?” _

_ Adrien didn’t respond. _

_ “There’s nothing dirty on there if that’s what you’re thinking!” For the first time in the course of their conversation, Luka was beginning to look angry. “Marinette would never do that kind of thing with someone who was already in a relationship, and I would never ask her to demean herself that way!” He stopped, breathing heavily, before going on. “So you won’t find any dirty pictures or sexts or anything like that, so go ahead and look! There’s nothing inappropriate about our relationship. I have nothing to hide.” _

_ A few seconds of heavy silence passed. _

_ “Yet you hid this from us.” _

* * *

_ “You ok there, man?” _

_ Adrien looked to the side, mildly surprised to see that his partner was still walking beside him. _

_ “I don’t understand what you mean.” _

_ “You looked… pretty intense there for a minute. I thought you might actually say something to him back there. Everything ok?” _

_ The blond shook his head, his brow furrowing. For a moment there, he _ did _ feel strangely upset. It wasn’t like he wasn’t used to people lashing out at him in questioning-- it was a high tension situation, and he was essentially putting a lot of pressure on them to get the most information he could. But something about Luka made him feel angry. Maybe it was the fact he was keeping in touch with his old girlfriend while he had a new one. Adrien never did respect infidelity, even the emotional kind- _

_ “Well, at the very least, I’m glad you’re putting Bruel on him. There’s something suspicious about this whole thing. I’ll start going through his phone in the meantime and let you know what I find.” _

_ Adrien nodded thoughtfully. _

_ “Find out what kind of CCTV footage we can find of the areas between the station and the ponts des arts bridge, and any of the streets leading up to it, especially those in the route she would have used to get there from her apartment. I want to see what happened between the time she sent him that message and the time she was taken.” _

_ Nino looked visibly taken aback. _

_ “It’s not like you to jump the gun that quickly. I mean, I think we can say with pretty strong confidence _ someone _ was involved in her disappearance, but so far, we’re coming up with not a lot of evidence.” _

_ Adrien passed through his office door, grabbing his trench coat and pulling it around his shoulders. _

_ “Hand that phone over to Mylène in logistics when you get a chance. I want you to go see the best friend and find out what she knows about this relationship between the missing woman and detective Couffaine.” Try as he might, Adrien couldn’t keep the distaste from his voice when he said the other man’s name. Nino did his best to ignore it. “Have you met Miss Cesaire yet?”_

_ Nino shook his head. _

_ “Right. Well, now seems like the perfect time.” _

_ Then Adrien headed out the doorway. _

_ “Ah, hey boss, where you going next?” _

_ The blond paused midstep, glancing only briefly back. _

_ “I’d like to talk to her mother.” _

* * *

_ “Good afternoon, Madame Cheng is it?” _

_ A short, Chinese woman walked around from the counter of the bakery, her apron covered in flour. She had a warm, pleasant smile on her face and a plate of cookies in one hand. _

_ “Madame Dupain-Cheng,” she corrected kindly, then held out the plate. “Would you like to try a cookie? They’re chocolate chip.” _

_ Adrien couldn’t fight the small smile developing on his face as he accepted one. Were his cheeks feeling a bit warm? _

_ “Ah, thank you, Madame Dupain-Cheng. My name is-” _

_ “Oh, I know who you are, Adrien Agreste.” _

_ He swallowed around a mouthful of cookie, suddenly nervous. _

_ “Ah, you do?” _

_ Her smile only grew wider and she nodded. _

_ “Oh, yes, my daughter Marinette really like you when she was a teenager. Had you magazine photos all over her wall.” _

_ Adrien tried not to let his eyes bug out of his head. It wasn’t exactly uncommon for someone to recognize him from his modeling years, but it was always a bit awkward. As he watched her, the woman’s face turned a bit sad. _

_ “My daughter, Marinette- she really loved chocolate chip cookies, you know.” Tears started to build in her eyes, and she sighed. “She used to pretend she was sneaking them to some imaginary friend, drew pictures of it and everything. A little tiny red bug that looked like a stuffed animal with black spots and big blue eyes.” Then she shook her head fondly. “She called it a kwami and said it gave her super powers.” _

_ Adrien felt something twist in his chest. She sounded like a really interesting girl. Part of him wished he had actually been able to meet her when they were young, instead of being held captive by his father in his early stages of paranoia post-mother’s disappearance. _

_ “How about you just take the whole plate?” she was saying now, bringing Adrien out of his thoughts. He blushed a little realizing that he had inadvertently tuned her out. He accepted the plate despite not feeling much like eating, because it looked like, as she turned way, she was wiping tears from her eyes. _

_ “I’m sorry. You probably didn’t come hear to listen to me talk about my daughter.” The sound of her voice was thick. “Can I get you anything?” _

_ “Actually,” he cut in, a bit awkwardly. “That’s exactly why I’m here.” _

_ The short woman turned, expression a little shocked. _

_ “Please, allow me to finish introducing myself. I’m Adrien Agreste, and I’m currently investigating your daughter’s disappearance.” _

* * *

_ “Um, is there a woman that works here, someone named Alya Cesaire?” _

_ The lady behind the reception desk looked Nino up and down, her jaw churning rhythmically with what he supposed must be chewing gum. At last she turned to the telephone at her station and lifted it to her ear. _

_ “Is she expecting you?” _

_ Nino hesitated. _

_ “Ah… no.” Then, hurriedly, he pulled out his badge. “B- but I’m here to talk to her about some important matters. Would you please let her know that I’m here?” _

_ The woman looked his badge over for a moment before punching in an extension. Nino took the time to study her. She looked about average height, with bright pink hair and almond-shaped eyes. _

_ “Hey. Al. Some weird guy’s here looking for you. Says he’s from the police.” _

_ There was some noise on the other end of the line. _

_ “Want me to tell him to bugger off?” _

_ Some more noise came from the handset, a little louder this time, to which the pink-haired girl smirked, her gum visible in her teeth. _

_ “Yea, yea, just get your perfect butt over here already.” _

_ Then she hung up the phone and turned back to Nino, all traces of smile gone from her face. _

_ “She’ll be out in a minute.” _

_ Nino nodded, quite nervous, and walked over to sit in a chair. While he waited, he looked around the lobby, taking in the design. It was quite simple, if plain. It was, after all, a newspaper subsidiary, so the walls were decorated mainly with a few framed cheap-looking pieces of art and some of the more famous headlines from the publication’s past. _

_ In the middle of him studying the interior design, the sound of clacking heels garnered his attention. His attention was drawn to the doorway leading to the offices, which was filled suddenly with a woman of breath-taking beauty. _

_ She was taller than average, with long, wavy red hair, rich caramel skin, and deep hazel eyes. She wore a pair of glasses, vintage in style, on her face, which was smooth and well made up. Her lips were a dark tint of maroon, and nails were painted black. She wore a fitted, high-wasted, navy pencil skirt, a high-necked button-up in white with a Peter Pan collar, the sleeves rolled at the cuffs. She had a pair of high navy heels that made her already hourglass curves even more dramatic. _

_ Nino was pretty sure his heart was in his throat. _

_ “Hey there, handsome,” she greeted in a voice like silk, “A little bird said you were dying to meet me.” _

_ He stood there for a second, jaw hanging down. _

_ “Ah- d- ah-” _

_ Then, like a clumsy idiot, he started feeling around in his pockets for his badge. Finally successful, he held it open for her. _

_ “Ah, d- detective Nino Lahiffe. I- I’m working on your friends, cased, the L- I mean, Marinette. I- I- can I ask you some questions?” _

_ His arm remained outstretched awkwardly as she looked back and forth between his badge and his face. Then, she reached out and grabbed his hand and slowly turned it 180 degrees. His face filled with heat, and his heart beat faster. _

_ A small smirk gradually took over her lips. “It was upside down,” she said. _

* * *

_ “Madame Dupain-Cheng-” _

_ “Oh, please, honey, call me Sabine,” she said, placing a hand on Adrien’s arm. _

_ With almost a start, he realized he had rarely ever been touched this much by someone before in a completely non-sexual way. It was actually quite pleasant. _

_ “Ah, right, then. Sabine. I know you’ve already been questioned some by detective Couf- the previous investigator- _

_ “You mean lieutenant Kurtzburg?” _

_ “Um, who?” _

_ “Kurtzburg. Nathaniel Kurtzburg. He’s Luka’s partner, you know. Oh, poor Luka.” She shook her head sadly. “He’s really broken up about this whole situation.” _

_ Adrien nodded, but didn’t comment. _

_ “Right. So, I know you have been questioned already, but I just wanted to check in with you and see if there’s anything you can think of that maybe you didn’t remember before, or if something new has come up. Perhaps any strange interactions she may have mentioned to you, or perhaps she kept a diary somewhere that we don’t know about? Did she have any dates with anyone, was she seeing anyone, was there anyone showing interest in her?” _

_ At this, Sabine frowned a little. _

_ “Now, you know, I do remember saying something to the last detective, but he didn’t seem to take it very seriously.” _

_ “You did?” Mentally, Adrien tried to go back through the notes about Sabine Dupain-Cheng’s interview. The woman nodded in answer. _

_ “Yes, I did. You see, Marinette once mentioned to me she had found a few things outside her door before that struck her as odd. There was a flower once, I think, a purple hyacinth. There was a girl’s doll another time. I think she might have received a call from a blocked number, but the person never responded when she answered. All these she said could have just been coincidence, like someone dropping something accidentally in the hall outside her door, but I told her she should be wary.” _

_ Adrien rapidly took notes, mind racing as he tried to determine the likelihood of these acts being intentional. _

_ “Do you remember when these things happened?” he asked, still writing in his notepad. _

_ “Um, let me think. I think the flower was several weeks ago, the doll might have been a month ago, and the phone calll… well, I’m pretty sure that was just a few days before she disappeared.” _

* * *

_ “So, to your knowledge, was Marinette maybe seeing anybody? Did she have anyone she seemed excited about? A boyfriend? Or… girlfriend?” _

_ Alya tossed her head from side to side, slowly lowering her cappuccino down to the tabletop of the cafe they were sitting in. The momentary sunlight streaming in the window made her hair glow a fiery red. _

_ “Now that you mention it, she _ did _ say she had made a new friend recently, but when I asked her about it, she wouldn’t tell me who. It was all very sush.” _

_ “Sush?” _

_ Alya looked away from the sugar canister and flicked her eyes up to Nino’s face. _

_ “Yes, handsome, as in suspicious.” _

_ He tried not to blush at the nickname she had developed for him. _

_ Alya sighed, her warm expression drooping a bit. _

_ “Truth is, Marinette’s always been a little secretive, but I’ve never paid it much mind. It’s just who she is. She likes to have things that only she knows about. I’ve never felt like it was something worth getting upset over, or anything dangerous. I mean, I guess it’s all a bit coincidental that soon after she makes a mysterious new friend, she up and disappears, but it could also just be that. A coincidence. I didn’t get any strange vibes from the way she talked about this person, and usually that’s something you notice, you know?” _

_ Nino watched, hypnotized, before shaking himself out of his trance and writing down some notes. _

_ “So, I know this is a bit of a loaded-slash-obvious-as-fuck question but, do you have any idea where she might be, or what might have happened to her?” _

_ He raised his eyes to find that hers were on him, strong and bright and intense. _

_ “I wish I did. But I’ll tell you this. Marinette is the most bad-ass person I’ve ever known, man or woman, and wherever she is, she’s going to make it back to us. She’ll find a way.” _

* * *

A harsh, high-pitched sound startled Adrien out of his fitful sleep. It took him a few seconds to figure out where he was and what was the noise, but when he looked at his bedside table, his phone was lighting up and ringing. A digital clock on the table glared in the darkness of the room.

_ 03:43 _

A bit sluggishly, he reached for the phone and accepted the call, belatedly registering it was from his partner.

“Lahiffe-”

“Boss, you should get down here,” the man cut him off in a tight voice. “A body’s been found.”

For a moment, time stopped. Adrien’s heart raced in his chest, adrenaline in his veins. For a second, he couldn’t breathe. Then, all at once, he blurted, panting:

_ “Dead or alive?” _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks so much for reading! Please please please let me know if you're enjoying this! I'm trying particularly hard to make this story interesting and mysterious ^_^
> 
> <3 Muse


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Adrien begins the difficult wait for confirmation of the newfound victim's identity.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for continuing on this journey with me! I've said it before, but I'll say it again: this is going to be a slow burn.
> 
> If you're a follower of my Expectations story, I'm working on an update for that, too, but it's taking longer. I'll post it as soon as it's done (and as long as I'm satisfied with it).

_ “Alive, but… barely. I don’t know how long she’ll last.” _

Adrien didn’t remember the drive to the hospital. The entire 20 minutes it took him to get from his apartment to Hôpital Hôtel-Dieu was a blur. He didn’t remember the way he gripped the steering wheel so tight it turned his knuckles white, though his hands felt sore at his sides as he walked through the wide automatic entry doors. He had no memory of the way his heart beat frantically in his chest, though he belatedly registered the feeling of being somewhat disoriented and out of breath as the sterile air hit his face. 

He turned a corner on the third floor, and Nino’s bespectacled face came into view. The man noticed Adrien immediately, quickly striding in his direction and meeting him halfway. The two walked side by side to a set of chairs, Nino talking the whole time. 

“She’s still in surgery. She’s been badly beaten. At this point, we can’t make a positive identification on her, but she matches Ladybug’s height, body type, and hair color, and she was found on the banks of the Seine close to the Ponts Des Artes.”

Adrien’s features were contorted in a deep frown, his brow resting low over stormy eyes. Both found seats in a waiting area. 

“Fingerprints? DNA?”

Nino made a noise, causing Adrien to face his partner. 

“We’re still waiting on the DNA sample we sent to the lab. It could be hours. It could be a day or two. We haven’t sent a sample for comparison yet. We need to contact Ladybug’s parents.”

“Do we have her fingerprints on record? They have to be all over her belongings. Shouldn’t we have a set on file by now?”

Nino grimaced, clearly hesitant. 

“The body… the victim- she doesn’t… have any.”

Adrien stared at his partner, too stunned to say anything for a moment. 

“Wh- what?”

Nino nodded, his expression grim. 

“It looks like her prints have been… burned off.”

* * *

“Hey. Boss.”

Adrien glanced up from his place by the corner of the wall, Marinette’s picture from her file gripped tightly between his fingers. He looked blankly at his partner, whom he didn’t even hear approach.

“You should go home and get some rest. Doctors say it’s going to be several more hours before she can be seen, if she makes it through surgery.”

The blond man didn’t say anything but lowered his head, just barely nodding while he stared, unfocused, at the floor. Nino fidgeted nervously.

“You know, pushing yourself too hard will only hurt you.”

But the detective didn’t even seem to hear him. He stood up from his seat, walked over to the wall of windows and looked out, unseeing, at the city. It was still dark outside, quiet and deceptively serene, almost as though all of Paris was sleeping. The twinkling lights only added a sense of beauty and majesty to it all. 

Adrien couldn’t stop wondering how many violent crimes were occurring out there in the vast darkness, right before his eyes, unable to be seen. His heart wouldn’t stop thudding heavily in his chest, a voice at the back of his mind sinisterly whispering that he had failed her.

Ladybug.

_ Marinette. _

He lifted the photo in his hand and looked at it again. She was quite beautiful, he never allowed himself to admit before in an effort to remain professionally detached. Not only the lines of her face and the brightness of her smile--there was something so lively and joyful about her eyes. They reminded him of the sky on a cloudless day. He wanted to hold her, run his hands over her face, pull her close and protect her from any harm that might come her way. The thought of all the injuries she sustained made him sick to his stomach, Nino’s report echoing in his mind.

_ “She has fractures on her face and arms. Cracked ribs. Contusions, scrapes, and mild lacerations all over her body. Swelling of the brain. Marks on the wrists where she was likely constrained. Trauma to the head and torso. A damaged spleen which she may or may not lose. It’s being monitored while they work on relieving the pressure on her brain.” _

“No,” Adrien finally answered. “I need to be here.”

Nino’s nod could be seen in the reflection on the window.

“All right. I’ll… come find you if I hear something.”

His steps grew quieter and quieter as he walked down the hall in the direction of the cafeteria, probably to look for some strong coffee. Adrien exhaled long and heavy, the photo in his hand almost burning against his skin.

_ The sun will be up soon. _

The thought registered distantly in his mind, and he began to pace slowly around the waiting area, tucking his hands into the pockets of his black trench coat. After several slow, irregular laps along the windowed space, he sunk down into another chair and leaned his head back. Tired eyes stared blankly at the ceiling. White, drop down tiles and fluorescent lighting. It reminded him of when his mother was sick.

Adrien sat up, sighing, just as Nino returned with two disposable cups in hand. The seated man accepted the offered drink thankfully, grimacing at the taste and the temperature after he took a sip. He leaned forward with his elbows on his knees and exhaled a long breath.

“Have the missing person’s parents been notified yet?”

“We were reluctant to do that until we had a positive identification. Mendeleiev has been instructed to contact them and request a DNA sample without arousing concern. She should be arriving there shortly. I told her not to disturb them before business hours in case she alarms them for nothing.”

Adrien peered thoughtfully ahead, coffee cup cradled in both his palms.

“Don’t send her to do it. Mendeleiev is anything but tactful. Send Bustier instead.”

Nino nodded obediently.

“Consider it done.”

He stood, raising his phone to his ear, and walked toward the largely empty hallway.

“Hey. Aurora. It’s Nino. I need you to get me-”

The rest of it, Adrien didn’t hear. He found himself staring once again at the photo he was carrying. So engrossed was he in the girl’s image, he didn’t notice one of the doctors approach until she was standing less than a meter before him.

“Detective?”

She was slightly taller than average, with short, red hair and bright green eyes. Adrien hurriedly shoved Marinette’s picture into his pocket and jumped to his feet. His coffee sloshed in its cup, which he set down on a nearby table.

“Yes. Sorry. My partner is just out in the hall. It’s nice to meet you, doctor...”

She smiled.

“Pleasure to meet you, detective. Please, feel free to call me Ondine. I just came to notify you that the patient-”

Nino ambled up at a jog, causing Ondine to pause briefly.

“Nino, it’s good to see you again.”

“Hey, Ondine. What’s the word?”

“I was just about to tell your partner that the patient has undergone a craniotomy to lessen the pressure on her brain. She had some trauma that caused bleeding and swelling, but that seems to be under control now. Currently, she’s in surgery for her spleen and abdominal bleeding. I expect that to take a few more hours yet before she’ll be moved to recovery and then placed in the ICU. From there, we’ll have to watch and wait.”

“When will we be able to see her?” Adrien questioned. Ondine looked hesitantly between the two men.

“We won’t get in the way, O. We just need to get a look at her face to try to positively identify her as soon as possible.”

The doctor sighed, clearly a little reluctant.

“Well, for now, she’s considered unstable, and if you’re hoping to identify her based on her appearance, I have to warn you--she barely even looks human. Not only is her head wrapped in bandages, she’s also breathing through an ET tube and has severe swelling on her face. Her cheekbone is fractured and will need to be evaluated by a cosmetic surgeon, both of her eyes are purple and swollen shut, and she has multiple contusions and cuts on her face.” Adrien’s jaw tightened. “Whoever this girl is, I don’t think her own mother would recognize her right now.”

Nino nodded docilely.

“I understand.” The disappointment was clear in his voice.

“But…” Ondine paused again. “I know you have a job to do, and I’ll let you know as soon as she’s stable enough to be seen. Ok, guys?”

Both partners nodded in reply.

“Thanks, Ondine. Tell Kim I say hey.”

She gave Nino a crooked smile, partially exposing straight white teeth.

“All right, I will. Take care.” 

Then she turned and walked back down the hall, her bright red hair gradually disappearing until it was out of sight around a corner.

Adrien turned back toward his seat and collapsed down into it.

“Friend of yours?” he asked.

“Yea, sort of,” the other man answered with a frown. “She’s dating a friend of mine. Um… boss?”

Blond locks dangled before emerald eyes as Adrien lifted his face. The outer edges of his mouth and eyelids seemed to droop from exhaustion. Nino stared down at him, visibly concerned.

“Don’t you think we should go home and get some rest while we can? It could be several hours, even days before we can get in the same room as her.”

Adrien lifted his feet and set them down on a nearby chair, shifting so that he could lean back where he was sitting and crossing his arms over his chest.

“You should definitely go home. I’m going to wait things out here.” Then he closed his eyes, his head dropping slightly to the side.

“Uh, that’s…” Nino’s voice trailed off. “That doesn’t seem like the most efficient or productive choice. We should really recharge and start going through as much of that material as we can before-”

“Absolutely,” Adrien cut him off, opening his tired, bloodshot eyes. “I need you at one hundred percent. After you’ve rested, get in touch with Ivan and see if he’s learned anything so far by following Couffaine. Find out what Mylene has gotten from the burner phone. Check up on the status of the CCTV footage by Couffaine’s residence, the missing person’s residence, and the Ponts des Arts, especially in the hours surrounding the time of the girl’s disappearance and the time this unidentified victim was found. I want pressure put on the lab to rush the DNA test once we get a sample from the missing girl’s parents, and-"

“Whoa, whoa, slow down, boss.”

Adrien took a deep breath, waiting patiently while Nino extracted a notepad from his pocket and began writing. After a minute or so, he continued.

“I want that test result as soon as possible, and I want you to start cross referencing the statements again from Couffaine, the best friend, Gabriel Agreste-”

“Adrien-”

“-and do me a favor: double check that Theo Barbeau’s alibi again. He just rubs me all kinds of the wrong way.”

“Why the friend?”

“I want to see if there’s any more mention of this new person she mentioned. And see what you can find out about possibly a doll in the missing person’s apartment. I want to check up on that.”

“All right, boss, all right. I got it. Is there anything else?”

“Yea.” Adrien yawned and shifted a little to get more comfortable. “See if you can’t get me a blanket.”

Nino sighed, closed the notepad, and tucked it into his coat pocket. Then he looked at his partner, whose eyelids had fallen shut again, raising an eyebrow.

“Any preference on material, your worshipfulness?”

Adrien smiled a little, lids still closed.

“Surprise me, Lahiffe.”

* * *

Adrien didn’t remember drifting off to sleep, but it seemed like only seconds later, he was being startled out of his rather uncomfortable slumber by the ringing of his cell phone. With bleary eyes, he looked down at the caller ID, barely registering in the back of his mind that there was full daylight beaming in through the windows.

Lahiffe?

Frowning from a mixture of exhaustion and confusion, he answered (inarticulately):

“Yea.”

“We found something at the station.”

It took his brain a few seconds to process that. Straightening in his chair, his brow furrowing further, Adrien didn’t respond for a moment. Then:

“What?”

“Somebody left something in the alley behind the building. It’s… you should really see this.”

Adrien’s breathing was slightly labored. He shifted again in his chair, setting his sore legs on the floor and arching his stiff back.

“Send me a photo?”

“Hold up.”

There was some rustling on the other end of the line before Adrien heard some clicking, and Nino’s voice could finally be heard.

“All right. It should be there any second.”

Sure enough, an almost indiscernible buzz in his ear alerted him to a message. He pulled the phone away and opened his messages app, tapping on the image to view it full screen.

For several seconds, he could only stare.

“What the… fuck?”

Nino’s voice rang out mutely from the speaker.

“I know, right? Can you see it clearly?”

Using two fingers, Adrien zoomed in on the photo and dragged it around.

It was a painting on canvas--a large one, by the looks of it. The background was obscure, messy, and dark. In the center was a woman sitting on a chair, her arms tied behind the back, her feet secured to the legs of the chair. From the colors and shadowing, it looked like she was sitting in front of a bright light. Highlights glistened on her legs and face, which hung forward and to the side. She appeared to have a blindfold, but there were no marked facial features besides that. No mouth, no nose, no ears. It was almost like a mannequin. Underneath, in capital letters, it read _ COPYCAT _. The letters were rough looking as though scrawled with a nearly dry brush and red like blood. It made a heaviness settle deep in Adrien’s gut.

“Yea. Yea I can… see it.”

“That’s some seriously twisted shit, I gotta tell you,” his partner could be heard saying.

Adrien couldn’t look away from the picture, scrolling over the zoomed in image repeatedly before resetting it to full view. A thought suddenly occurred to him.

“Did you ever get that sample from the parents?”

“Yea,” Nino’s hollowed out voice replied. “Bustier got samples from both parents, said it was to establish a profile. Everything went smoothly.”

“Ah. That’s-”

“Detective Agreste,” a soft, feminine voice called from behind him.

He turned, surprised. His gaze flicked away from the image on his phone toward the person calling his name.

He was met with the grey eyes of Sabine Dupain-Cheng.

They shifted downward, focusing on the picture displayed on the screen of his phone, then rose to meet his. His own were wide, alarmed. Hers slowly began to brim with tears.

“Detective Agreste, where is my daughter?”

Adrien quickly closed the photo, barely taking the time to raise the phone to his ear and utter, “call you back,” before hanging up Nino’s call. Slowly, cautiously, he reached out and grabbed the woman by the arms, then led her to a seat in the waiting area he had been sleeping in just minutes before.

“Madame Dupain-Cheng-”

“Oh, please, honey,” she said thickly, dapping at the corners of her eyes with a handkerchief, “call me Sabine.”

“Sabine,” he started again. “I’m going to tell you right away that I don’t know where your daughter is.”

She inhaled a shuddering breath, then released it.

“Now,” he continued, “can I ask how it is you came to be here?”

His eyes flickered over her features, searching them for signs of distress. The woman sniffled, clutching her handkerchief close to her lap.

“That dear woman this morning came by and asked to swab our cheeks, discreetly of course. Bless her, she was such a kind thing. She told us there was no cause for alarm, that it was just to build a profile I think she said? But I had this feeling there was more to it. I couldn’t let it go, so I started with calling the morgue to see if any unidentified females had arrived overnight. Then I started calling hospitals and asking if any female patients were brought in who didn’t have an ID. I called this hospital first because I thought of it first. It’s so close to where we live.”

Adrien watched her, his expression a somber mixture of surprise and admiration.

“That’s… very sagacious of you, Sabine, but I’m afraid I don’t have any good news for you. I don’t have any news at all, to be honest. There is a patient here, but we have yet to positively identify her, so at the risk of sounding harsh, we can’t let you see her unless we’re basically certain.”

“Can I help?”

The blond man blinked stupidly. 

“Help?”

Sabine exhaled heavily. 

“Yes. Help. If you let me see her, I can tell you whether or not she’s my daughter.”

Adrien drew a breath, holding it and carefully releasing it. 

“Ah, Madame Dupain-Cheng-”

“Sabine.”

“-I’m terribly sorry if I upset you saying this, but… the woman we are currently monitoring is unrecognizable at the moment. What’s more, she should still be in surgery.”

Sabine gasped quietly, one hand raising up to cover her mouth as her eyelids slid shut. 

“Oh, that poor girl,” she whispered.

Adrien hesitantly cradled am arm around the distressed woman’s shoulders. She leaned lightly into the crook of his arm and cried quietly for some minutes. 

She was beginning to regain her composure when a figure in scrubs approached them. He was taller than average, with dark brown hair partially hidden underneath a cap. As he drew closer, the hazel of his eyes became visible.

“Detective,” the tall man nodded in greeting and waited for them to stand. 

“Ah, Sabine, maybe I should talk to this gentleman in private.”

“Absolutely not,” she responded, voice like steel. “I want to hear it, too.”

Adrien held back a grimace. 

“Well, that’s really against department policy-”

One hard look from her had him sighing in defeat. 

“All right, doctor,” he said, turning to the other man. “Please, give me the news.”

The doctor looked uneasily between them before reluctantly complying. 

“I removed the patient’s spleen and repaired her internal bleeding.”

Sabine grabbed Adrien’s hand, gripping it tightly.

“She’s come through the surgery, but she’s in intensive care. We still don’t consider her stable, but in a few hours you should be able to go in to see her quickly, as long as nothing changes between now and then. I’ll have a nurse notify you in case anything changes. It could be several hours yet.”

“Thank you, doctor,” Adrien replied and shook the man’s hand. Alongside Sabine, he watched the surgeon disappear down the hall.

“I’m sorry, Sabine,” he said turning to the woman beside him. “I wish I had more definitive news to give you.”

She tilted her head back to look him in the eyes. It was almost comical how great the difference was in their heights. The top of her head barely reached the underside of the curve where his upper arm joined with his shoulder. She raised one hand, resting it’s cool palm against his cheek.

“Oh, dear, sometimes no news is better than bad news. I still have hope for my baby girl.” Then she paused. “Now, in the meantime… you look terrible. Did you sleep at all last night?”

Adrien didn’t answer; he just blinked owlishly. Sabine squinted her eye and looked him over the way he assumed a mother did.

“You’re so pale, and the circles under your eyes are so dark. Have you eaten? It can’t have been comfortable trying to sleep in that chair.”

Then she reached down for the blanket he had been using, which had fallen to the floor, and rolled it up in her arms.

“Come with me. You can get some rest, and I’ll prepare something for you to eat.”

Finally, his brain caught up with him.

“Oh, no, Sabine, I can’t-”

“Oh, tush,” she interrupted. “You can and you will. No matter what, this situation isn’t going anywhere without you, and you can’t do your job properly if you’re malnourished and sleep-deprived.”

He had no argument against that.

Sabine walked toward the nurse’s station and handed over the blanket, motioning for Adrien to follow.

Feeling like a chastised child in elementary school, he obeyed.

It really wasn’t far, he quickly realized. The bakery was just several blocks away, close enough that they didn’t even need to take the metro or a cab. He walked through the back stair behind the bakery to the apartment level, following Sabine through the kitchen and up another set of stairs. At the top was a trapdoor. When it lifted, his vision was overcome with soft pink… everything.

“If you would like a shower, it’s on the main level,” her voice carried to him, muffled, from inside a closet. “Please, lay down and take a rest.” She turned around to face him again, holding a pair of sheets. “The bed is up that ladder behind you.”

Adrien pivoted, shocked to realize he had completely missed the loft bed, so enthralled was he by the room he was in.

“This is…” he trailed, jaw slack.

“Yes,” Sabine said on a sigh, looking about the room with tears in her eyes. “This was Marinette’s room when she was younger.”

She made herself scarce not a minute after that, insisting on his using the space to nap and recharge. At last, Adrien gave in and, once the door was shut and the room quiet, he slowly laid down on the pink comforter and fell immediately to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! I appreciate every hit, kudo, and comment!
> 
> Let me know if you're enjoying the story, and what you're enjoying about it!
> 
> <3 Muse

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! Quick poll for regular readers: which of my pics would you like to see updated next?
> 
> If you liked this beginning of the story, please leaves kudos and a comment ^_^
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> <3 Muse


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